Family Portrait (A Jasper's Sister Story)

08: Change

**EDITED: 5/15/17**

"Wait, what?" Seth stared at Jasper with wide eyes, turning his attention to me.

I sighed and finally turned to face Jasper. The look on his face made my heart drop in my chest. He was staring at me with a mix of disappointment and something else, I couldn't put my finger on it.

"What are you doin' here, Belle?" His voice was tense. I could tell he was holding back a scolding, maybe even a yelling, voice. I heard Seth stepping closer to me, as if he was trying to protect me from the silent wrath of Jasper, and felt his arm brush against mine.

"I went out for a walk." I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, "I just needed to clear my head."

"Well walk's over, darlin'. It's time to go back," Jasper stepped forward and grabbed my wrist, fully intending to drag me back to the house. I flinched slightly at the coldness of his touch, realizing how tight his grip was on my wrist. I cursed silently at the pond for making the human qualities last longer.

"Jasper-"

"No," He cut me off. "We're leavin', now." I swallowed and kept my gaze on the ground, feeling like a small child being scolded by her parent.

Jasper froze when a quiet growling sound came from behind us. I glanced at Jasper before turning to look back. My eyes widened when I realized that the growling was coming from Seth.

The once innocent face had turned into a murderous glare, his body was shaking in anger. I frowned, noticing that the glare was fully directed to Jasper.

"Seth?" I tried stepping towards him but Jasper's grip on my wrist tightened, and he pulled me behind him.

"Stay away from him, Belle. He's dangerous," Jasper glared at Seth. "She's my sister, not your imprint." He spat at Seth. I stared at him in confusion.

What was an imprint? Why is Jasper being extremely protective over me?

I tugged on Jasper's hand, trying to get him to let go. I huffed in frustration when my efforts didn't even make him budge.

"I would never hurt her," Seth glanced down at Jasper's grip on my wrist, "Maybe you should get off your high horse so you can realize that the only one hurting her is you."

Jasper immediately let go of my wrist and instead put his arm around my shoulder, turning us back. "C'mon, we're goin' now."

"She can go where ever she wants, she doesn't need you to order her around."

"She doesn't want to stay here with a mutt like you," Jasper spat, turning to face Seth again.

"She was perfectly fine here before you showed up."

"She--"

"She can speak for herself!" I snapped, ducking out from under Jasper's arm. I stepped away from him, and crossed my arms ignoring the stinging from my wrist. "And she'd like to know what's goin' on. So one of you will tell me what this petty argument is about," I watched as both Jasper's and Seth's eyes seem to cloud over.

Well at least my gift still works.

"I don't want my baby sister being mated to a mutt," Jasper said automatically.

"I can't stand by when my imprint gets hurt," Seth responded after Jasper.

Both their eyes began to go back to normal and I frowned. What did Jasper mean mated? Seth isn't my mate, right? And I still want to know what an imprint is.

Jasper took a hesitant step toward me, only stopping when I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I'm not going back to that house," I said quietly. Jasper frowned.

"Where are you going to go then? You can't stay in the woods,"

"She'll come with me," Seth spoke up, stepping closer to me.

"I wouldn't want to impose" I shook my head.

"It's nothing, really. You'd be more than welcome," he smiled at me, causing my heart to flutter. I frowned.

"I'm not exactly human though," Seth frowned and watched me carefully. "I am-er- was a vampire. I'm not exactly sure what's going on with me right now, but I think it has to do with me almost drowning in that pond and unintentionally drinking some of that water has somehow made me more like a human than a vampire. I don't know, it's all kind of confusing actually..." I trailed off, noticing that both Jasper and Seth were staring at me.

"We can figure out what's going on, I'm sure the elders know something about it." Seth said and glanced at Jasper. "If your brother let's you come with me."

"I'm clearly not the boss of her," Jasper sighed and shook his head..

"I'll come back tomorrow, I promise." I said to Jasper, "please don't make a bigger deal out of this than it already is." He nodded and gave Seth a quick nod goodbye before disappearing in a flash.

"So, do you want to walk or ride back?" Seth asked after a moment of silence.

"Ride what?" I asked.

"Um, me." I blushed slightly. "I-I mean as a wolf. It would be easy to carry you, and it would probably be faster."

"Oh...um, yeah. Sure I guess," I rubbed my arm awkwardly. Seth told me to wait a sec and I watched as he disappeared into the forest, a wolf coming out a few seconds later. Not just any wolf, my wolf. "Oh," I mumbled to myself. So Seth and my wolf are the same person.. er, shifter. Great.

The wolf...Seth knelt down and motioned to his back using his head. I shifted on my feet and slowly walked towards Seth. I climbed onto his back, holding his fur in a death grip as he stood. He slowly started to walk, as if telling me to brace myself.

After a moment of walking, Seth broke out into a run. The change caused me to jerk forward, but I quickly regained my balance as Seth ran through the forest.

I laughed, feeling the wind blow through my hair. I heard Seth snort.

"Are you laughing at me?" I asked. He nodded his head and I scoffed. "At least I'm not a giant puppy," I teased. I gasped when Seth suddenly stopped, almost making me fall over. I huffed and jumped down, crossing my arms. "You're awful."

I watched as Seth disappeared behind a tree and come back as a human.

"That's what you get for calling me a puppy," he stuck his tongue out at me.

I laughed, "but you are a puppy!" I squealed when Seth tickled my sides, slapping his hands away. "So where are we?"

"Well we are about 5 minutes away from Sam and Emily's house. Sam's the alpha and we all hang at his house because Emily makes the best food," he explained. "So I thought we could walk there together," he looked at me with big eyes.

"You say you aren't a puppy yet you're givin' me puppy dog eyes," I poked his cheek. "Alright, show me the way to your alpha's house."